Computer Simulation of Temperature Distribution during Cooling of the Thermally Insulated Room
1
Faculty of Applied Informatics, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, 760 05 Zlín, Czech Republic
2
Department of Computing and Control Engineering, University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic
3
Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics, Czech Technical University in Prague, 166 36 Prague, Czech Republic
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Energies 2018, 11(11), 3205; https://doi.org/10.3390/en11113205
Received: 10 October 2018 / Revised: 10 November 2018 / Accepted: 16 November 2018 / Published: 19 November 2018
This paper is devoted to modelling of temperature distribution and its time evolution in rooms with specific thermal insulation and heat transfer for different external conditions. The simulation results should help to design the room architecture and wall materials to reduce energy losses due to heating or cooling, and to increase the inside thermal comfort. For this purpose, a methodological procedure using real data processing in the COMSOL Multiphysics modelling environment and spatial visualization of temperature evolution is proposed. This paper describes a mathematical model for simulation of the temperature evolution inside a space with thermally insulated walls under selected outside conditions. Computer simulations are then used to assess the temperature distribution inside the room and the heat flow through the room walls. Results of the simulations are used for subsequent determination of the time needed for the desired decrease of air temperature inside the tested room during its cooling due to the low ambient temperature, which is related to the thermal stability of the building, specific heat capacity, and thickness of the thermal insulation. Under the studied conditions, the time to reach the temperature drops by 20 percent in a room with windows was from 1.4 to 1.8 times lower than that in the room without windows. The proposed methodology shows the flexibility of computer modelling in the design of insulated building systems. The mesh density testing was performed by comparing the air temperature evolution in the model of the selected mesh density and the model with its maximum value enabled by the size of computer memory. The maximum temperature deviation calculated for the mesh of the presented model was 0.57%.
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Keywords:
thermal stability of building; COMSOL Multiphysics; computer simulation; 3D model; determination of temperature decrease for cooling the room; signal processing; smart city
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Description: Source code of the programmed computer application
MDPI and ACS Style
Charvátová, H.; Procházka, A.; Zálešák, M. Computer Simulation of Temperature Distribution during Cooling of the Thermally Insulated Room. Energies 2018, 11, 3205. https://doi.org/10.3390/en11113205
AMA Style
Charvátová H, Procházka A, Zálešák M. Computer Simulation of Temperature Distribution during Cooling of the Thermally Insulated Room. Energies. 2018; 11(11):3205. https://doi.org/10.3390/en11113205
Chicago/Turabian StyleCharvátová, Hana; Procházka, Aleš; Zálešák, Martin. 2018. "Computer Simulation of Temperature Distribution during Cooling of the Thermally Insulated Room" Energies 11, no. 11: 3205. https://doi.org/10.3390/en11113205
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